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@anne_the_noob14, @Deeprun

Glad to help! Hit me up with questions any time, both of you!

DOGGONIT THE WEBSITE DELETED IT AGAIN AFTER I PRESSED SUBMIT. OKAY.

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

TAKE 2.

From the top:

1)      You might live for a week or two at most. Feasting on your oxygen rich blood and spreading to all your vital organs – death is almost assured without antibiotics, and quite likely even with them.

2)      Amputation might save her life if they notice her wound looking gnarly before she starts experiencing systemic symptoms (chills, fever, shallow, rapid breathing and rapid, ineffective heart beat).

3)      Mandrake root (part of the nightshade family) would put you right out. It’s not the kind of anesthetic where you can still function; you’ll be asleep for the duration of its effect, but you’ll be feeling pain once you wake up. Using mandrake root excessively can cause cessation of breathing, which you might imagine is a pretty bad thing. If your character needs to be up and doing things or having important conversations, opium or good-old fashioned alcohol are probably your best bets.

4)      Pus does not typically gather in the bloodstream, but in lymph nodes and local to the infection site; bloodflow is obstructed by the destruction of red blood cells (eaten by the bacteria), toxins created by the bacteria in the process of eating your body, as well as toxins produced to defend the bacteria from your immune system.
Pus is usually more liquid than solid (even if it’s pretty gooey), so it would more likely leak or squirt rather than be pulled out with tweezers. Thank goodness. 😛

5)      A crush cut might come from being hit with something like a spiked war-hammer, or a massive blunt object like a hundred pound bar of iron; it could also look like the aftermath of an open compound fracture, where the bruised flesh (which now looks like tenderized beef) is caused by the blunt force which broke the bone; the broken bone then acts as a blade, cutting through tissue and breaking the skin, potentially with externally visible bone. This is a very, very ugly wound, and it’ll likely look worse before it’s better.

Examining your character’s wound and infection:

1)      The allergic reaction sounds a bit like a less terrifying, localized version of Toxic Endothelial Necrosis, where your entire skin system basically peels itself off your body, leaving you looking like a human piece of beef jerky.

2)      The wound it leaves sounds similar to a second degree burn or a stage 2 / stage 3 pressure ulcer, depending on whether it’s only the skin that’s lost or any underlying fat tissue as well. The shallow nature of the wound will delay its progression to sepsis.

3)      The area of the wound is going to hurt, a lot. It’s going to be red, swollen (probably a walnut sized lump), hot to the touch, possibly leaking pus mixed with slough and scabs constantly (together called exudate). She’ll probably have trouble concentrating in all that pain, but she’ll still be cognizant of reality.

4)      However, if she’s reached septicemia (blood infection), she’s going to be running a high fever, chills, rapid breathing and heart rate potentially with fibrillations; low blood pressure, cold body, pale, clammy skin, nausea, vomiting, potentially diarrhea. With her body systems failing under the weight of infection, she’s going to be delirious and likely only lucid for certain periods of time (most likely when the fever is mitigated by external conditions, like a cool breeze at night, etc.)

5)      Given a shallow wound like that, if the infection is caught before it goes septic, the healer might be able to save her by sterilizing the wound. A possible course of treatment might look like this:

6)      Debride and drain the wound (remove all the slough and remove as much pus as possible), sterilize it with high purity spirits or a solution of arsenic emulsified in some other inactive ingredients like lard, alcohol, or bile (yes, that’s stomach acid), then pack the wound with a dressing composed of turpentine, honey, and spiderwebs, compressed under a tight dry bandage, or one soaked in brine (saltwater). Change the dressings daily and continue to cleanse and reapply the above remedies until the infection recedes. Bear in mind that any touching of the wound is going to hurt like a million bee stings, let alone pouring alcohol or spreading arsenic all over your exposed tissues. This might be a situation in which you use mandrake root for some nice sleepy time….

Hope this was helpful! Feel free to hit me up with any research questions, not just ones about medicine or wound care! I can always stand to learn more.